MEET THE GEO CENTER STAFF

Robin Melavalin Robin Melavalin, Director of the Global Education Opportunities (GEO) Center, is an internal consultant to the six Colleges of the Fenway schools. She is involved in all aspects of internationalizing the campuses, which includes working with faculty and administrators as they prepare to take students abroad, streamlining procedures and policies, and working with the campuses to develop their strategic vision for internationalization. An anthropologist, photographer and teacher, she has been in the field of international education for over 20 years and has led student groups to Cuba, Cape Verde, and other countries. She has also traveled in Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Bali, Uzbekistan and China. In her spare time she leads outdoor adventure trips for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Douglas Upton Douglas, the Assistant Director, is our most recent addition to the staff of the GEO Center. Douglas comes to us with over ten years of experience in the field of international education as an international student and scholar advisor, a data manager and administrator, a teacher of English as a Second Language, and most recently he served as the Director of an Intensive English Language program in the Back Bay. As an undergraduate, Douglas participated in a service-learning project in Kingston, Jamaica and studied in Oxford, England. Since then, he has lived in Bilbao and Madrid in Spain, as well as traveled for work and vacation in over forty countries on five continents. Prior to entering the field of education, Douglas worked in monetary affairs with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. His hobbies include volleyball and softball, as well as conducting walking tours of Boston’s neighborhoods and architecture.

STUDENT STAFF PROFILES:

Mattie Diomande
Zainab Halima

Matata Diomande Hello, Bonjour and Namaste. My name is Matata Diomande and I am a junior at Emmanuel College majoring in Global Studies with a Political Science minor.  I was born in the capital city of Cote D’Ivoire, Abidjan.   Cote D’Ivoire is a small country in Francophone speaking West Africa with beautiful people, food, beaches, and much more.   I lived there for 7 years with my family until we moved to Islamabad, Pakistan where I attended the International School of Islamabad for 2 and a half years until we moved to New Delhi India.  Instead of moving again when my mother was posted we decided to stay in India because we fell in love with the people and the culture there.  That is where I considered home for over 8 years, until I moved to Boston.
Boston is such a beautiful city and I love living here.  Proof of that is probably that I choose to endure this snow even though I have been born and raised on the equator. I never saw myself here but I fell for the city and Emmanuel College as soon as I arrived. 
Recently returned from a semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain, travel is on my mind more than ever.   I am eager to help other students. 

Zainab Halima Hey. My name is Zainab Halima and I am a sophomore at Emmanuel College doing Management. I originally come from Uganda where I was born, and in 2009 I thought it would be a good thing for me to study in USA and here I am. Growing up, I always loved travelling though I didn’t ever get out of my country until now. Because of my passion to travel around the world, am thinking of either joining a law school here in America or Britain after my bachelors. My experience as a foreign student in the US has so far been good and interesting. I have met people from different parts of the world, and I have also learned about different American cultures and practices like Thanksgiving. I would also love to study abroad in South Africa or Spain. Apart from travelling, I love basketball, swimming, dancing and meeting new people. I think it would be a good thing for everyone to study abroad at some point in their life because you get to actually see and experience the things in other parts of the world that you have been reading about or watching in movies.